Aug. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Three days of truce in Gaza ended as
Israeli aircraft bombed the territory in response to rocket fire
by Palestinian militants, while Egypt called on both sides to
reaffirm their commitment to a broader agreement.

The Israeli army said 50 rockets were fired at the
country’s south yesterday, including some before the truce
expired at 8 a.m., and a soldier and a civilian were injured.
“We will continue to strike Hamas, its infrastructure, its
operatives and restore security,” Army spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner said. The Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip
said five people were killed in Israeli airstrikes.

Hamas, which runs Gaza, said the cease-fire wasn’t extended
because Israel hadn’t responded to Palestinian demands, though
the Islamist group denied it was responsible for rocket attacks
today. Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees, two
other militant movements that operate from the narrow coastal
strip of land, said they fired missiles at Israel.

Fighting over more than four weeks has killed about 1,900
Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, the majority
of them civilians. Israel says militants account for between 750
and 1,000 of the Palestinian dead. Sixty-seven people have died
on the Israeli side, all but three of them soldiers. Talks in
Cairo have sought a lasting cease-fire accord that accommodates
Hamas’s demand for an end to economic curbs on Gaza and Israel’s
desire to end attacks from the territory.

Troops Withdraw

Along with the U.S. and European Union, Israel considers
Hamas a terrorist organization. It holds Hamas responsible for
controlling the other militant groups in Gaza.

Israel withdrew troops from Gaza on Aug. 5 following a
four-week offensive that it said aimed to end the rocket fire
and destroy tunnels militants used to stage cross-border
attacks. Soldiers haven’t been sent back into Gaza, an army
spokeswoman said anonymously, in accordance with military
regulations.

Gazans had begun to head home during the truce, often to
find their houses destroyed. The United Nations Relief and Works
Agency said the number of displaced people in its 89 shelters
fell from a peak of almost 273,000 to 171,240 as of yesterday.
Israel’s artillery and air strikes razed more than 10,000
Palestinian homes and damaged hospitals, UN shelters housing the
displaced, and power and water infrastructure.

‘Sticking Points’

The resumption of fighting came after last-ditch
negotiations throughout the night in Cairo, mediated by Egypt,
failed to secure agreement to prolong the truce or narrow
differences that have hindered a permanent accord. Channel 2
reported that the Israeli delegation had returned from Cairo.

Egypt’s foreign ministry called on all sides to reaffirm
their commitment to talks to enable progress on the “very
limited sticking points that remain in the fastest possible
time” in a statement carried by the state-run Middle East News
Agency.

The past month’s fighting followed the breakdown of U.S.-
brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians in
April. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas responded by ending
his seven-year rift with Hamas, a move condemned by Israel.

The killing of three kidnapped Israeli teenagers, which
Israeli blamed on Hamas militants, and the suspected revenge
murder of a Palestinian youth added to tensions, and weeks of
rocket fire and Israeli air strikes escalated into war. Hamas
and other Islamists have fired thousands of rockets into Israel
since early July.

UN Condemnation

Fending off condemnation from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other world leaders about Israel’s use of military
might in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel
used appropriate force given the rocket and tunnel attacks.
Israel accuses Hamas fighters of using Gazans as human shields,
striking from densely inhabited neighborhoods.

Clashes also broke out yesterday in the West Bank, governed
by Abbas’s Palestinian Authority. One Palestinian was killed as
soldiers opened fire on a crowd of people throwing stones as
they approached an Israeli settlement, Israel’s army said.